On Wed, 10 Jan 2007 21:45:19 -0600, Philip <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> if it were just as easy to lose weight by limiting calories as by 
> changing the types of foods eaten then I don't think that the USwould  
> have quite the obesity problem it has and conventional dietswouldn't  
> fail as often as they do. We can agree to
> disagree on that one.

For what it's worth, I think the high failure rate of conventional diets  
is mostly because of the people engaging in them.  There are several  
people I know who have been "on a diet", and it's interesting to watch  
their eating choices.  Several of them will have "just one bite" of a  
snacky food, or have just a little too much of something figuring they'll  
make it up later.  All those little bits here and there really add up.  I  
was fanatical about recording everything I ate into a database so I know  
for sure how much I was getting.  If the average person dieting did that  
for a month, they would probably discover that they're eating a lot more  
than they think they are.  I know I was.

Changing the content will probably work faster and easier *if* the person  
can stomach the change in content.  There are some people I know (my wife  
is among them) for whom a meal just is not complete without bread, a  
potato, rice, or something.  It's really hard to change that mindset.  Her  
opinion of my diet is that there's nothing she can fix for me other than a  
piece of meat and a vegetable.  My opinion of my diet is that the choices  
are endless (though admittedly they do tend to boil down to a piece of  
meat and a vegetable).  :-)

The mind is the hardest thing to change -- get *that* done and the diet is  
easy.

-- 
   Robert Kesterson
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